| Public Release Date: July 2, 1997 | No. 97-35 |
Fergus Falls Community College (FFCC) is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System (MnSCU). MnSCU began operations on July 1, 1995, when the state universities, community colleges and technical colleges throughout the state merged under one governance structure. FFCC is a two year college. Dan True is the president of the college.
The objectives of our audit were to gain an understanding of the internal control structure over the accounting and reporting of financial activities of the college and to determine if the college complied with material finance-related legal provisions. The areas covered by our audit were tuition, payroll and other administrative expenditures, bookstore revenues and expenditures, and student financial aid for the period July 1, 1995, through December 31, 1996.
We concluded that FFCC operated within its available resources and generally operated in compliance with management's authorization and applicable legal requirements for the items tested, including federal student financial aid regulations. Overall, the college designed and implemented internal controls to provide reasonable assurance that its financial activities were properly accounted for and accurately recorded on the accounting systems. The college did not, however, always maintain sufficient collateral for its local bank account.
Other findings discussed in the audit report included improving some controls over tuition receipts. Specific recommendations for tuition included approving administrative adjustments, depositing receipts more timely, and improving controls over continuing education receipts. In the area of administrative disbursements, we noted that the college did not always verify the receipt of goods prior to paying invoices. We also recommended that the college prepare periodic financial statements for its bookstore in order to monitor the operations, including its pricing structure and profitability, more closely.
In its written response to the audit report, Fergus Falls Community College agreed with the report findings and specified its corrective action plans to resolve the issues noted in the report.
